Here is a list of all the collected postmortems we’ve written for mindful xp.
R-evolution
R-evolution is a 5-person racing game made in 8 days by the three members of mindful xp, a graduate student project exploring how meaningful games can be made. Its input is the Unitas Zero, a set of 5 pressure pads that individually are big enough for one person to stand on, acting as one big button. The game is split up into 5 vertical slices, with each player’s avatar represented at the bottom along a long track of land, and all of the avatars are started equidistant from one another, moving along the same track. The only interaction is that of players stepping on the pad, causing their avatar to go forward. Continue reading the postmortem here
Connections
Connections is an abstract shooter that deals directly with the difficulty of maintaining relationships over time and distance. It was the second project developed for mindful xp and the first game we developed in Flash. Continue reading the postmortem here
Scott Told Himself
Scott Told Himself was the 3rd game we developed for the mindful xp project. Or at least the 3rd we started. 1 month later we released Scott Told Himself after we developed two more game projects and finishing it during our spring break.
So what happened? Why did we stop Scott Told Himself in the middle of development? A lot of went wrong with Scott Told Himself could be filed under typical mistakes made while learning how to work together as a team. Thankfully though we as a team learned to grow through these mistakes and learn how to effectively work as a team going forward. Continue reading the postmortem here
The Path Taken
The Path Taken is a prototype developed in Flashpunk over the course of 11 days (originally planned for 7 days). In this game we wanted to model the feeling of regret and “the grass is greener on the other side” mentality. You play as Ward, a boy going through a rite of passage in a dungeon and learning a few things about life along the way. Continue reading the postmortem here
exhaust
Exhaust is a short flash game made in 1.5 days by mindful xp. The player holds space to drive a car. If the player lets go of the space bar, the car begins to drift off of the road. The game ends when the player realizes he/she needs to let go of the space bar and let the car drift off the road. The player is then presented a scene where the car drifts in an open meadow and the game ends. Continue reading the postmortem here
Emptiness
Emptiness is a flash game made using the Flixel engine in around 1 week and a half by me (Dan Lin). This game was an experiment to see if a game can be more meaningful if there is only one creator. The player is a square who has lost its center and the player needs to navigate through a dungeon and make friends in order to successfully find their center. Continue reading the postmortem here
Collect
Collect was the end result of a long process developing my own individual round game. Initially I had hoped to develop an entirely different game based on an experience that was very personal to me. In the end though I was not prepared to develop that experience into a game that I felt could clearly communicate everything that I had hoped. Instead of releasing something that I felt was substandard I instead changed tracks and released something less personal and could be realistically achieved within the time constraints of our project. Continue reading the postmortem here
MARCH
MARCH is a first person exploratory game I made roughly in 4 weeks, for the individual works round of the mindful xp project. MARCH is an intensely personal game, an autobiographical work depicting my thoughts and feelings about breaking up with someone recently. The game was catharsis to develop, as the entire affair weighed heavily on my mind for a long while after it occurred, and it was something I “needed to get off my chest.” Continue reading the postmortem here
Controlling
Controlling is a flash game made using the Flixel in less than 48 hours for the Ludum Dare Game Jam 23 by me (Dan Lin). The art was done in Gimp and the sounds and music was done in OpenMPT Tracker. You play as a guy in this puzzle platformer. The main mechanics involve the absence of jumping, wrapping around of the stage, and being able to move around blocks and placing them using the mouse. The player progresses through the levels. Continue reading the postmortem here
Get Closer
Get Closer was the final game created for the mindful xp project. It was an individual game created by myself about the difficulty with trying to get close to someone. As the last project in our semester, it was a pretty straightforward process to develop the game. Continue reading the postmortem here